Bad weather forced the postponement of the 23rd edition of the Smoki Smokic Children’s Marathon in Belgrade which was initially scheduled for 9 April but the climax of the event still took place albeit on a revised date of 23 April.
Buoyed by governmental support and corporate sponsorship, the event is staged to get young children in Serbia fit and healthy and factoring in previous editions of the event, 370,000 participants have taken part since it was first held.
“These activities are taking place the year round and that is one of the reasons why children are prepared for the competition today. Pre-schools pay much attention to sports activities. This is how the City of Belgrade will contribute to our youngest citizens growing up as healthy individuals and that is our future,” said Mayor of Belgrade Sinisa Mali, who was one of the special guests at Belgrade Zoo which is where the event was staged.
The grand final was staged this weekend but 16,000 preschoolers from around the city took part in the preliminary events. The 150 best competitors were invited to the final where they were split up into twelve groups. From there, the winner of each group went into Super Final.
The winner this year was Andrej Nikolic who attends “Mala sirena” kindergarten. Nikolic clocked 36 seconds for the course 230m long which passes elephants, camels, kangaroos and ostriches. And for posterity, the winner equalled the course record which has stood since 1996.
Nikolic, a keen footballer, was followed by Stefan Dangubic in 37 seconds with Bogdan Savic third in 38 seconds.
The Mayor of Belgrade said the event is a good means to introduce young children to the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle and the value of sport. These sentiments were very much echoed by event organiser Dejan Nikolic.
“Athletics, as a sport, should be proud to have such a good opportunity to closely cooperate with Belgrade's Department of Education and Children’s Welfare and be able to animate kids aged 5-6 years and present them and their parents the value of athletics,” he said.
“The Ministry of youth and sport of the Republic of Serbia is supporting the event as well.”
Nikolic added that European Athletics supported a programme in 2006 - 'Let’s Start With Sports' - which serves children aged between seven and nine. That programme was inspired by the Belgrade Children's Marathon as another way of introducing youngsters to the sport and inspiring them to be active.